# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S5
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1902. 5

Doctrinal Proceedings.

Are There Contradictions in the Bible?

(Essayist [Referent]: Director E. A. W. Krauß.)

Introduction.

When the infant Jesus was presented in the temple by his parents, the aged Simeon spoke the prophetic words to Mary, his mother, Luke 2:34: "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against." How that has been fulfilled and is still being fulfilled, we know. Still today Christ, our humbled and again exalted Savior, is a rising again for many, but many come to a fall through their own fault at this chosen cornerstone. Even today and until the last day the thoughts of many hearts are revealed precisely in the testimony concerning Christ. He who is not for him is against him; he who is not against him is for him.

What holds of Christ, however, holds also of the Scripture that bears witness of him, and holds of it chiefly for the very reason that it bears witness of him. Like the uncreated Word, of whom St. John writes, "God was the Word," so also Holy Scripture is a sign that is spoken against. In the Word of Scripture, too, the thoughts of many hearts are revealed. Let us, in these days, with God's help, of all the objections that are raised against the written Word of God, against Holy Scripture, give our particular attention to the one that is summed up in the words: Holy Scripture contradicts itself!

This is by no means the only charge that is hurled at the Bible, and with it at Christianity as the religion founded on the Bible. Holy Scripture, so its opponents say, is supposed to stand in contradiction, in irreconcilable opposition, to almost everything that is held among men as certain and true, and that is acceptable and authoritative for every educated person. It is said to contradict world history, to contain much that is incorrect and untrue, which cannot stand before the forum of a more exact historical research but has been proved to the point of evidence to be unhistorical. It is said to contradict the natural sciences, and indeed every single branch of them, whether one thinks of what is above the earth or on the earth or under the earth. It is said to be as irreconcilable with astronomy as with the exact results of the science of man, of botany or zoology, and most especially geology is said to contradict Scripture